Ancestral Roofs

"In Praise of Older Buildings"

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Flashback: happier days at Hotel Quinte

In the early days of the Hotel Quinte, the south entrance facing the Armouries was the grand main entrance. A massive portico led into the lobby where patrons were greeted by hotel's luxury appointments. The impressive marble mosaic floors displayed the hotel name, proudly emblazoned in mosaic at the entry. Stories say that both the marble, and the mosaic craftsman, were imported from Italy by Henry Corby, one of the entrepreneurs who built the hotel.

location of 1907 entrance visible behind white sign, centre

The entrance, a massive Romanesque Revival inspired portico,was removed and the entrance blocked over in the mid c.20. Until very recently (sniffle) the scar was visible, a large patch of pink modern brick on the southwest corner.

At the same time, the west entrance was changed and modernized.

During the summer of 2011, dedicated hotel staff painstakingly removed carpet that had been glued onto the mosaic floors and revealed this wonderful marble welcome mat.

Great Architecture quotes

"The sins of the Architect are permanent sins" Frank Lloyd Wright, 1914

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." ~Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet (Posted in January on the ACO Acorn online)

"It is forbidden to disfigure external decorations on private buildings through modern additions and to spoil historic buildings in an important town out of avarice and the desire to make money." - Theodosius, Valentinianus, Arcadius (309 A.D.)

"It has been said that at its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future" - William Murtagh (1988)

"Preservationists are the only people in the world who are invariably confirmed in their wisdom after the fact". - John Kenneth Galbraith (1979)

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines" - Frank Lloyd Wright

"Architecture is the art of how to waste space" - Philip Johnson

"Architecture is frozen music" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo Gallery

"Caught in passing"

Striker/Walmsley House 1868

Albert Street beauty

Fort William Collegiate Institute - "they don't make 'em like they used to"